Albrecht, part of a painting by
P.P. Rubens (Museo del Prado)
Isabella, part of a painting by
P.P. Rubens and H. Van Balen
(Museo del Prado)In the 16th century, large parts of today's Belgium were under the control of the King of Spain, Phillip II. On May 6th, 1598, the King gave his daughter Isabella the sovereignty of different parts of the South-Netherlands, including the County of Flanders (East and West-Flanders - 2 provinces of today's kingdom of Belgium - and a part of the North of France) and Brabant. Isabella was engaged to Albrecht, the Archduke of Austria, who was predestinated to become an archbishop in Spain.
On September 13th, 1598 Phillip III succeeded Phillip II as King of Spain and he confirmed this convention. Albrecht and Isabella got married on April 14th, 1599. In September of that year they left Spain and entered the different provinces of the South-Netherlands. The people, hoping that with these new rulers at least the wars would end, gave them a hearty welcome. These inaugurations can still be seen on different paintings of P.P. Rubens.
From the first day of their reign, Albrecht and Isabella tried to give the South-Netherlands a stable monetary system. But this was very difficult due to the always-changing prices of gold and silver. They were obliged to follow these fluctuations by strucking new coins or by changing the weight and/or the composition of earlier strucked coins. So we can divide the coins strucked during their reign in two periods: the first from 1599 till 1612, the second period from 1612 till 1621.
The coins used in the County of Flanders were all strucked in Bruges and have a lily as mintmark. The coins for Brabant (the provinces Antwerp and Brabant of today's Belgium and some parts of today's Netherlands) were strucked: in Brussels, with a B or a the head of Saint-Michael as mint mark; in Antwerp with a hand as mintmark; in Bois-Le-Duc (now 's Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands) with a tree as mintmark; in Maastricht with a star as mintmark. There were also coins strucked in Tournai, a city in the Southwest of Belgium, with a tower as mintmark, and in Luxembourg with a lion as mintmark.
The first new silver coin, strucked in 1599, to replace the coins of the reign of Phillip II, was based on a new unity: the guilder. A double guilder, a guilder, a half guilder, a quarter guilder, a "stoter" (1/8 guilder) and a "braspenning" (1/16 guilder) were all strucked in silver. New gold coins appeared at the end of 1599: they were called ducat. A double ducat and a ducat were strucked. Both coins have on the obverse the profile of Albrecht and Isabella, looking at each other, and on the reverse is their crowned shield encircled with the Golden Fleece.
Four years later, due to the changing prices of the precious metals, a new silver coin was strucked. The new unity was a real: a triple real, a real, a half real and a quarter real replaced the guilders. The head of the triple real also wears the profile of the Archdukes, but this time both looking at left. Copper coins with the names of Albrecht and Isabella appeared for the first time in 1608: a "duit" and a "oord" (in Dutch) were strucked. The French names are a "gigot" and a "liard".
But this monetary system was internationally not accepted. So the Archdukes changed their politic radically in 1612: the beginning of the second period. It was based on a sovereign for the gold coins and on a patagon, also called a silver sovereign, for the silver coins. A double sovereign, a sovereign, 2/3 of a sovereign, a half sovereign, a patagon, a half patagon, a quarter patagon were the new coins in circulation in Brabant and the County of Flanders. Together with a new silver coin, a dukaton, for the first time strucked in 1618, this system formed the basis for the monetary system till the middle of the 18th century.
These coins of the second period are artistically the most beautiful coins of the history of Flanders. On the obverse of the golden double sovereign both the Archdukes are sitting on their throne, and on the patagon their bust is depicted looking at right. As the coins were used in the whole European circulation of payment, they became rare in the inland.<<
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